Influenza

WASHINGTON — Influenza vaccination reduced the risk for influenza-related hospitalization in children by nearly half and the odds of death in adults by about 36% over several recent influenza seasons, according to CDC data from two studies presented at IDWeek.

Survey results that showed that only 52% of adults in the United States plan to get the vaccine for this flu season and the FDA’s approval of a vaccine for smallpox and monkeypox were among to top stories in infectious disease last week.

Findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress showed that a population-wide salt substitute strategy in Peru reduced systolic and diastolic BP, and the influenza vaccine was associated with a significantly reduced risk for mortality in patients with hypertension.

WASHINGTON — Although influenza vaccination rates have increased, new data released by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases indicated that barely half of U.S. adults plan to get vaccinated against influenza this season.

Older adults with multiple myeloma in the United States significantly underused guideline-recommended supportive care measures, and this underutilization appeared linked to both facility and patient factors, according to a study published in Cancer.

Experts are developing and testing numerous vaccine candidates against norovirus, which causes hundreds of millions of infections each year worldwide and is seen as a top target for vaccine research. Infectious Disease News asked C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, and Leigh M. Howard, MD, MPH, of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program and division of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, what the world’s top vaccine priorities are.

Influenza remains an important threat to public health, and people with impaired immune systems are at particularly high risk for severe disease and complications. One comparative analysis showed that severely immunocompromised patients with influenza experienced significantly more hospitalizations, ICU admissions and mechanical ventilation than nonimmunocompromised patients. However, clinical signs and symptoms may be pronounced on initial presentation, underscoring the importance of seeking early medical attention. Additionally, antiviral resistance is more common and the mean viral shedding time was longer among immunocompromised patients (19 days compared with 6.4 days in healthy people).

The incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospital admissions among infants may be more than 2 times higher than current estimates, according to findings from four low- and middle-income countries published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

Healthy adults who take broad-spectrum antibiotics may impair their body’s immune response to influenza vaccination, according to findings from a small study published in Cell.

Patients with cancer and cancer survivors should receive seasonal influenza vaccination, although vaccination appeared somewhat less effective for patients with hematologic vs. solid tumor malignancies, according to results of a population-based study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.